August 07, 2006

Long Road to Broadband

I have a new term - Broodband. I am brooding. I have waited a long time for broadband to come to my rurual idyll in Wexford. I use a satellite service that is slow and expensive - really slow and really expensive. My fault for living in the countryside I guess. How dare I.

Recently, I have had some cause for optimism. I met the Chairman elect of eircom, Pierre Danon and he seems like a man that means business. Will this mean ubiquitous broadband? Chink of light says it might. Then I hear that Sky might be rolling out a broadband service and I have Sky TV - excellent.

And then the brooding. Tony O'Reilly being interviewed on radio saying that people did not understand broadband and that eircom had perfomred more than adequately in provision of broadband. Lord! You can follow the comments over on the Irish Internet Association's blog.

Then more brooding. A letter from Sky saying that due to incompatibilities in the Irish phone system Sky would not be able to roll out there service here, yet. Like they didn't know this before? But they did over a special on HD and Sky Plus as a consolation. I do not want a consolation I want BROADBAND and I WANT IT NOW.

Some schmissem of hope, met with Senator Shane Ross - now, he is a politician I could work with. He seems genuinely concerned with the issues and looks like he might raise the profile of the problem. Let's see.

Now, I am off for a long brood during a walk with my little dog Sputnik. My satellite has just passed overhead anyhow, so I have missed my emailing window for another 28 minutes. Ho Hum.

3 Comments

Ah Fergal, ‘tis a terrible thing this broodband. Indeed, I suffered with this terrible melancholy myself for 2 years, but now it is no more. (Although it is only now I have the proper term for it, courtesy of this blog, thank you for the diagnosis) Our band is indeed broad here in deepest countryside in Kilmore, Co Wexford, not too many miles from your own rural idyll. We have wi-fi in our house and wi-fi in our holiday cottages (www.kilmorecottage.com) and we surf happily by day and by night, and we use VOIP and, (being that time of year), revenue on-line and all sorts of wonderful applications, at a fraction of the cost of satellite. (Sigh!) To cut a very long story short, we have wireless broadband. I sourced a company www.permanet.ie to apply for assistance under the Government Group Broadband Scheme (closed 28.0.05 – sorry folks) http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Communications .This was a very time consuming process for me as community liaison. A public campaign had to be run to get in excess of the mandatory 10% of households in our area signed up. Finding a broadband company wasn’t easy either. Let’s just say the broadband suppliers queue wasn’t very long. Oh and then there was all that jargon, contention ratios and whatnot. Anyway, it is done (I know a lot more people now...) and broodband has been uploaded into cyberspace. For me at least.
So the question is, can you be treated for broodband? It seems so hopeless; I mean a dog called Sputnik??? Surely an unhealthy allusion to that satellite upon which your tenuous link with cyberspace depends? O dear. Anyway, I recently had a conversation with a gentleman who is installing a new bay station on a hill that may offer a line of sight to your own rural retreat. (My knowledge of the geography of deepest Wexford doesn’t allow certainty here). Which could mean wireless broadband for you. Fingers crossed. No promises. Watch this space.....
O and if you meet Senator Shane Ross again, tell him that for the next phase of the Government Group Broadband Scheme, there should be no onerous number crunching conditions imposed upon local communities. The people and businesses of rural Ireland need broadband. And they need it now.

Hi Fergal,
I have recently changed to Magnet http://www.magnet.ie/ and am on their 8MB download. Very happy with them - I changed from EsatBT. The support from Magnet is the best I have come across. I'm in Galway don't know if they are in your area but they are worth a look at ;<}